A la Carte; If Not Crab Cakes, How About a French Movie and Buffet?

By RICHARD JAY SCHOLEM

Published: January 16, 1994

NEW YORK CITY'S best crab cakes have come to Long Island, and so has one of China's most respected new wave national banquet chefs. Meanwhile, Mirabelle's veteran chef and owner has received national recognition and also entered into an innovative French movie and meal promotion.

Guy Reuge, of the celebrated Mirabelle Restaurant in St. James, was honored two times in the last few weeks. He won an Evian Healthy Menu Award in a national chefs' competition. Mr. Reuge has also been invited by the James Beard Foundation in Manhattan to prepare a Long Island wine-tasting dinner on Thursday.

Mr. Reuge, who received a crystal engraved award and a Nordictrack machine as one of six regional winners, was recently declared the overall healthy dining champion for his entree, escabeche of red snapper. The prize is a trip for two to France.

Philip F. Palmedo and Edward Beltrami, writers of "Wines of Long Island," will share center stage with Mr. Reuge at the Beard Foundation meal, which is entitled the "Meet the Authors and Wines of Long Island Dinner." Birth of a Relationship

This year also sees the beginning of a relationship between Mirabelle and the Cinema Arts Center in Huntington. Moviegoers will be able to purchase a $75 combination ticket entitling them to see a French motion picture and sample a Mirabelle buffet meal in a candlelit French garden setting designed by Village Flowers of Huntington.

The New Jazz A. Cordes French String Quartet will provide music for the occasion. The first of four monthly French movie and meal evenings, entitled "La Belle France Series," will be held on Jan. 30.

Mirabelle is also staging a celebration of Auguste Escoffier's culinary creativity tomorrow at 6 P.M. Mr. Reuge, who has prepared a menu in the Escoffier tradition, said the French chef's grandson and great-grandson would to talk to diners.

Among the dishes to be offered at the $65 meal are coquille St.-Jacque a la Parisien, tournedos Rossini, timbale Marechal and riz l'imperatrice. The last two are small molded vials filled with chicken mousse, truffles and beef tongue with truffle sauce and rice pudding with dry apricots.

The dinner is part of a weeklong New York salute to Escoffier.

Last month, another French chef, Guy Peuch, bought 50 percent of the Inn on the Harbor in Cold Spring Harbor. Mr. Peuch, who was executive chef at the Water Club in Manhattan from its opening in 1982 until 1989, has completely changed the menu.

The chef, who joined Bill Tsakanikas, current owner of the Inn on the Harbor, worked in San Diego and as a restaurant consultant after a stint at the Water Club. He was employed briefly at La Marmite in Williston Park while seeking a place of his own.

Mr. Peuch's country-style cuisine includes crab cakes with a red- pepper coulis, which were called "the best in New York City" by Bryan Miller in The New York Times. A $22.95 four-course dinner is being offered in addition to the a la carte entrees, which are priced from $14.95 for grilled chicken paillard over roasted vegetables to $23.95 for dry, aged Western sirloin steak au poivre.

The Inn on the Harbor is at 105 Harbor Road (367-3166). Asian Superstar in Hicksville

Less is known in this country about Asian chefs than their Western counterparts. As a result, many master cooks who come here from Asia are virtually ignored. One such superstar signed on recently at the Imperial Wok, 16 West Marie Street, Hicksville (933-8688).

The cook, Yun Lee, is a highly respected new-generation national banquet chef from China. As the chef at the American Embassy there, he prepared banquet meals for many visiting world leaders, including Henry A. Kissinger.

Mr. Lee graduated from the Yun Nan Culinary Arts School, where he later became a teacher. He taught a number of students who went on to become famous chefs.

Mr. Lee, who is from Sichuan, is one of a number of chefs to move to Long Island recently who stress authentic Chinese rather than Chinese-American cooking. He said Chinese banquet meals, which begin in the traditional manner with cold cuts like aromatic beef, are theatrical as well as culinary events. He not only prepares the meal, but also oversees the presentation of the food, the lighting, service and quality of the dinnerware.

Mr. Lee, along with Yau Hwa Lam, owner and executive chef at the Imperial Wok, also plays a large role in the restaurant's increasingly ambitious dim sum Chinese tea brunches, which are served from 10:30 A.M. to 3:30 P.M. on Saturdays and Sundays. A minimum of 30 dim sum snacks, at prices of $1.50, $1.75 and $2, are offered from rolling carts that circle the dining room. Among the most memorable at a recent meal were plates of four steamed chicken or pork shui mai ($1.75) and eggplant stuffed with pork ($1.75).

OPENINGS Insurrection, an American restaurant whose slogans is "A revolutionary dining experience," is scheduled to open this Wednesday at 388 Willis Avenue, Roslyn (621-3636). The eating place, with its wood-burning rotisserie, espresso machine, homemade desserts and mostly American wine list. is on the site formerly occupied by Adam's Grill. Prime aged steaks, roasts, chicken, lobster and shrimp entrees in the $15 to $28 price range will be offered in the modern black-and-gold high-tech dining room. Salads, burgers, grilled vegetables and lighter fare in the $7.95 to $14.95 category will be available in the informal lounge, with its fireplace, couches and wing-back chairs. The executive chef, Jack Clarke, a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, previously worked at Regine's in Manhattan, the Muttontown Country Club and Il Toscano in Queens. John Fry and Steve Wellington are the restaurant owners.

Carlo and Cathy Lanza, who formerly owned Adam's Grill, last month opened Pirandello, a 110-seat restaurant and pizzeria at 36 Lincoln Avenue, Roslyn Heights (625-6688). The Lanzas, who also own Sotto Luna in Roslyn Heights, describe Pirandello as "a moderately priced contemporary Italian eating place with French doors, soft lights and bleached wood througout." Entree prices range from $10.50 to $14.95 and pastas go from $7.95 to $10.95. Carlo Varrone, the chef, saw previous service at Soto Luna and Franina's in Syosset.

Melissa's, 132 Middle Country Road, Great Neck (466-1159), a seafood, steak and pasta restaurant, opened last month. The eating place is on the site formerly occupied by Trattoria Bene and Pomodoro. The new owners also operate Babylon Fish and Clam.

Crackers, 585 Stewart Avenue, Garden City (227-3739), in the Reliance Federal Savings Bank Building at the periphery of the Roosevelt Field Mall, is an American bistro that uses French cooking techniques. Although the restaurant opened last spring for lunch, it began serving dinner in mid-November. The chef, Keith O'Donnell, was previously at Diane's in Roslyn and the Linden Tree in Bethpage. Main courses are generally priced between $10 and $20 on Crackers' seasonal menu, which changes four times a year.

Bruce's Steak House, 691 Route 25A, Miller Place (821-3504), a moderately priced informal 45-seat restaurant, has been in business for a few months. The family owned place offers steak dinners with soup, salad, vegetables and potato for as little as $9.95. The petite filet mignon is $9.95, 16-ounce shell and sirloin steak dinners are $10.95, and aged 22-ounce porterhouse or T-bone steak dinners cost $21.95.

Andrew Telesca, the chef, was at the Atrium in Port Jefferson and Indrigos Pizza in Rocky Point before going to Bruce's.

Eddie's Pizza, 487 Chestnut Street, Cedarhurst (295-9393), an 18-table 80-seat offspring of Eddie's in New Hyde Park, opened last month. The new operation, like the original and a third Eddie's in Mastic, specializes in thin-crusted bar pizza at modest prices.

Maxine's, 602 Broad Hollow Road, Melville (752-1222), a 140-seat American and continental restaurant at the former site of Sitar, an Indian restaurant, opened in late last month. The new operation will feature aged steaks and chops, lamb, seafood, pasta and pork loins at entree prices of $15 to $21. John Smyth, one of the two owners, was general manager of the Garden City Hotel and the former Colonie Hill. Winnie Togonon, executive chef, was previously at the Rye Town Hilton.

Long Island Potato, 58-64 Gardners Avenue, Levittown (358-3690), a 140-seat American and continental restaurant serving pastas, seafood, steaks and sautes, opened a few weeks ago. Entree prices vary from $6.95 to $16.95. The specialties include boneless sirloin rose with broccoli and sauteed mushrooms topped with mozzarella cheese, and scampi over linguine. Michael Hendrickson, owner and chef, was previously associated with Chefs II in Huntington, Chefs II South in Lindenhurst and the Clam Bar in Northport.

The Loft Atop, another casual American restaurant, above Halligan's Pub at 145 Tulip Avenue, Floral Park (358-3690), is a 70-seat eating place that opened in November. Steaks and seafood are featured on the menu, which offers entrees at $9 to $14.

Queen of Cups, 483 Chestnut Street, Cedarhurst (374-1919), a 50-seat restaurant with what the owner, Cecila Bergstein, describes as "a full European menu," opened in late November. Ms. Bergstein, a Long Islander who owned and operated an Italian health-food restaurant in Las Vegas, Nev., for the last two years, said Hungarian, Scottish, English, French and Italian dishes in the $5.95 to $11.95 price range were offered daily.

The restaurant, which is named for a Tarot card, employs psychic readers who tell customers' fortunes during and after dinner on Wednesdays through Sundays. The chef, Lesley Hunter, came from Le Peeps in Orlando, Fla.